48 LAND-BIRDS. 



c. The familiar Bluebirds are the first birds to come from 

 their winter homes to the Eastern States ; for they reach the 

 neighborhood of Boston, invariably no later than March, and 

 sometimes in February. They have once reached it, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Brewer, on the twenty-eighth day of January, though 

 never known to pass the winter here. In summer they are 

 very common and generally well known throughout southern 

 New England, though comparatively rare to the northward, 

 as in the case with many other of our common birds. Whilst 

 migrating, they usually fly very high, and one may often be 

 apprised of their coming, before seeing them, by hearing their 

 warbled note, which they frequently utter when on the wing. 

 By the middle of March they become quite common, and may 

 be seen in small companies, perched on telegraph-wires or 

 ridge-poles of barns, on fences or trees, occasionally calling to 

 one another, or moving from place to place. Cheerless as the 

 season then is, they contrive to exist, though naturally insec- 

 tivorous, until warmer weather causes an abundance of in- 

 sects ; and they even mate during the cold weather with which 

 spring is inaugurated in this part of the world. In April, 

 they gather various warm materials, and build their nests by 

 placing them in a bird-box, or at the bottom of a hole in some 

 tree ; and in these nests their eggs are laid about the first of 

 May, when but few other of our birds have begun incubation. 

 The haunts of the Bluebirds are well known, and few natu- 

 ralists can pass through farms, orchards, gardens, or fields, or 

 travel over roads through cultivated lands and villages, with- 

 out associating with them these companions of every student 

 of nature. The Bluebirds are not only pleasant friends, but 

 are also useful laborers in behalf of agriculturists, as is proved 

 by the nature of their food, and the manner in which they 

 obtain it. Though in the early spring, and more so in fall, 

 various berries afford them nourishment, yet in May, and 

 throughout the summer, they feed quite exclusively upon in- 

 sects^ chiefly upon beetles, many of which are injurious. As 

 they often rear two or even three broods of young during their 

 annual stay in Massachusetts, they necessarily destroy an in- 

 calculable number of pests (at the rate of between fifty and a 



